The Boston Globe, April 6th, 1988
THE ARK SAKURA, by Kobo Abe; translated by Juliet Winters Carpenter. Knopf. 336 pp. $18.95. Grotesque is the word for Japanese novelist Kobo Abe's ramshackle new novel. Set in an abandoned subterranean quarry presided over by a 215-pound, 5-foot-8 fellow who calls himself "Mole" and wants to be called "Captain" (to everyone else, he is "Pig"), the story has aspects reminiscent of such previous Abe works as "The Woman in the Dunes" -- an enclosed space, limited cast, apocalyptic overtones. Unlike those fictions, however, "The Ark Sakura" wobbles down the launching rails and turns turtle. The pr...
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